Chapter 40: Blackout

Chapter 40: Chapter 40: Blackout

Sebastian woke with a dry mouth and the unpleasant residue of drowsiness clinging to his thoughts, but at least there was no blinding pain waiting behind his eyes and no red chasm opening beneath his consciousness the moment he tried to understand where he was.

The hum of the aircraft engines sounded quieter than before, their steady vibration softened beneath the mattress, and the bedroom had been dimmed until only warm light remained along the wall panels.

Sebastian pushed himself onto one elbow and immediately squeezed his eyes shut while his vision adjusted.

His body felt heavy rather than painful, which he decided counted as progress.

For several seconds, he heard nothing except the engines.

Nero left me alone?

Annoyance came with surprising speed.

Sebastian did not examine why being abandoned in a bed saturated with the scent of a man he had spent seven years avoiding offended him more than it should have.

He turned his head.

Nero had not left.

He sat in the armchair beside the bed with one ankle resting loosely over the opposite knee and a tablet balanced against his thigh, except at some point he had apparently fallen asleep while reading it.

Sebastian stared.

Nero’s head had tilted slightly toward the chair back, leaving the sharp line of his jaw exposed beneath the fall of white-blond hair over one shoulder. Someone with considerably less pride might have admitted that Nero looked unfairly beautiful asleep.

Sebastian had plenty of pride.

He was therefore offended.

He glanced toward the side table.

No phone.

His jacket was gone, along with everything that had been in its pockets, and Sebastian vaguely remembered Melanie confiscating his personal device before he had been carried out of the palace.

God knew what she had done with it since.

Probably handed it to Trevor.

Possibly turned it off after seeing the incoming notifications.

Sebastian looked back at Nero’s tablet.

Close enough.

He shifted toward the edge of the bed carefully, testing whether his body intended to object. The room remained level, and although the strange warmth beneath his skin was still present, nothing suggested an imminent collapse.

Nero did not move.

Sebastian leaned farther.

His fingers had barely touched the edge of the tablet when Nero’s hand closed around it.

Sebastian froze.

Nero’s eyes remained closed.

"No."

Sebastian stared at him. "You were asleep."

"I was resting."

"You were unconscious."

Nero opened his eyes, purple irises immediately clear despite the fact that he had apparently gone from deep sleep to territorial possession of electronics in less than a second.

"You were stealing my tablet."

"I was borrowing it."

"You didn’t ask."

"You were asleep."

"That usually makes asking difficult."

Sebastian pulled once.

Nero removed the tablet from his reach entirely.

The bastard even looked pleased with himself.

"I need a phone."

"No."

Sebastian’s face flattened.

Nero sat properly and placed the tablet on the table behind him, deliberately beyond Sebastian’s reach.

"My phone is with Melanie."

"I know."

"Then give me a service phone."

"No."

Sebastian stared for several seconds before speaking again.

"I want to call my parents, Nero, not coordinate a coup."

"That would actually be less complicated at the moment."

Sebastian’s expression became even flatter.

Nero sighed and rubbed one hand over his face before leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees.

"We’re on final approach."

"So?"

"So Hale ordered a communications blackout for every nonessential device on this aircraft until we’re inside the villa perimeter."

Sebastian paused.

That was annoyingly reasonable.

Nero continued before he could find a flaw in it.

"The engagement announcement went out while you were sleeping, which means every journalist, political office, private intelligence service, and person with access to sufficiently expensive tracking software now knows you are traveling with me."

Sebastian closed his eyes briefly.

"How bad?"

"My communications director used the phrase historic public interest."

"That sounds like a threat."

"It usually is."

Nero reached for his tablet again and showed Sebastian the upper corner of the screen without handing it over. The network icon had been replaced by a restricted internal connection.

"No external calls until landing. Even the crew’s personal devices are isolated. The villa has hardened communications, and your parents are already cleared through the secure line."

Sebastian looked at him.

"You spoke to them?"

"Hale did. They know you woke briefly after the council collapse, that you were stable enough to travel, and that you were sleeping."

"My father accepted that?"

"Trevor asked approximately fourteen security questions."

"That sounds correct."

"Lucas asked whether you had eaten."

Sebastian’s mouth moved faintly.

"That also sounds correct."

Nero’s gaze lingered on his face for a moment before continuing.

"They know where we’re going. They know Claude is with us. They know I haven’t killed you."

"That last part was probably reassuring."

"I thought so."

The aircraft shifted beneath them.

Not turbulence this time.

A subtle change in pressure passed through the cabin, followed by the faint mechanical alteration of the engines as the jet began its descent.

Sebastian looked toward the windows.

Clouds had disappeared. Far below, mountains and dense green forest stretched around a broad valley, interrupted by a private road and the long pale line of a runway cutting through the landscape.

Beyond it, partly hidden among trees, stood the villa.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes.

"That’s a villa?"

Nero followed his gaze. "Yes."

"It has three buildings."

"Four."

"Of course it does."

The main residence sat on a rise beyond the landing strip, modern pale stone and dark glass arranged around terraced gardens, while smaller structures disappeared into woodland on either side. Security vehicles were already positioned along the access road, their dark shapes visible even from the air.

Saha continued to have a strange relationship with the word modest.

Sebastian pushed the duvet aside.

Nero stood immediately.

"I can walk."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You stood."

"You moved."

Sebastian gave him a tired look.

Nero smiled.

The plane descended lower, and the change in angle made Sebastian instinctively brace one hand against the mattress. Nothing spun, although his body still carried that peculiar internal looseness that reminded him something fundamental had started changing only hours earlier.

Nero noticed anyway.

His pheromones warmed around Sebastian without becoming stronger, a quiet pressure that steadied rather than restrained.

Sebastian hated how quickly his body recognized it.

"We land in eight minutes," Nero said. "Then you can call your parents from the villa."

"I could make one call before then."

"No."

"You enjoy saying that."

"To you? Increasingly."

Sebastian stared at him.

Nero’s mouth curved.

Under normal circumstances, Sebastian would have continued until one of them lost patience.

These were not normal circumstances.

He was exhausted, his body had begun transforming itself into something he had spent his entire adult life certain he would never become, and arguing over eight minutes of communications blackout felt like an irresponsible use of what little energy he had recovered.

His expression flattened anyway.

Nero recognized the surrender for what it was.

"You’re not convinced."

"No."

"But you’re going to cooperate."

"For eight minutes."

"I’ll treasure them."

Sebastian lay back against the pillows with deliberate irritation.

"Give me my phone when we land."

"I don’t have it."

"Then find out where Melanie sent it."

"Already did."

Sebastian looked at him.

Nero smiled.

"It’s coming with your luggage."

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed.

Something about that answer felt suspicious.

He was not currently in the mood to discover why.

"Fine."

The jet continued its descent toward the private runway, the villa growing larger beyond the windows while Sahan security vehicles began moving into position below.

Sebastian closed his eyes again.

Nero sat beside him almost immediately.

Of course he did.

Sebastian decided he would save that irritation too.

There was going to be an extensive list by the time he felt well enough for revenge.